SECRETARY'S REPORT. 99 



besides which, it possesses in the highest degree the requisites 

 essential to restoring to the land the phosphates which it loses 

 by long depasturing with cattle. 



" The manure of the sheep, too, suffers no waste, being in a 

 highly concentrated form, and at the same time it is minutely 

 divided and evenly distributed over the surface of the ground. 

 So good and economical a distributor of manure is the sheep, tliat 

 experienced farmers in England are feeding them wlien in pas- 

 ture with oil cake, for tlie additional benefit of the manure." 



Another important consideration in raising sheep rather than 

 cattle, or horses, is that they can be " turned " or sold at a 

 much less comparative sacrifice than any other stock, if by 

 shortness of pasturing, or money, or for any cause, the owner 

 finds it necessary to reduce his stock ; and in case of accidents 

 or deaths in a flock, the loss is not as with other stock, a total 

 one — the pelt bearing a large proportion to the living value of 

 the animal ; sheep, too, can at any time of the year be replaced, 

 but cattle cannot always be bought. 



BREEDS OF SHEEP. 



Without going into a particular and elaborate history of all 

 the different breeds of sheep, a brief sketch of those now found 

 in New England may not be uninteresting. We find mention 

 of sheep very early in the history of the Colonies, but by whom 

 imported, or from what localities in the mother country, or from 

 what breeds, we have no information. As early as 1658 Mr. 

 John Josselyn, in his " Voyages," speaks of there being seven 

 or eight hundred sheep in the town of Blackpoint in this 

 Province. 



In 1676, Sir Edmund Randolph, one of the provincial gov- 

 ernors, mentioned in his correspondence to the home govern- 

 ment, that New England abounded in sheep. The descendants 

 of these sheep known in our day as " native sheep," in distinc- 

 tion from the breeds of known importaton, were of two kinds — 

 one with white faces, and the other with dark faces and legs ; 

 the first seem to have been preserved in the eastern part of the 

 State and on the islands, while the latter have been known in 

 the valley of the Connecticut by the name of " English smuts," 

 or " Irish smuts." These last may have been South Downs 

 imported before the improvement of that celebrated breed, as 



